He led a 2007 randomized study that followed more than 800 patients over nine months. Blue-light cystoscopy better distinguished carcinoma in situ (cancer that hasn’t metastasized), as well as the parameters of papillary tumors in study participants, making the tumors easier to find and remove.

Participants later showed improved time to recurrence (16.4 months) than those exposed only to traditional white-light cystoscopy (9.4 months).

While fluorescence is not appropriate for every surgical case, Grossman estimates it benefits one out of five bladder cancer patients in which it’s used.

Fleming, too, is excited by the potential for medical fluorescence. “I think this is just the start of where we’re going with this.”

People with inherited conditions that raise their risk of developing
certain cancers, such as colon cancer, deal with a lot of anxiety that
comes from uncertainty about their health. Hopefully, the work of
Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez will one day alleviate that risk.

In 1983, Robert Bast Jr., M.D., and his colleagues published a seminal
paper in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing his discovery of
the protein CA-125 and its value in helping to predict if ovarian cancer
might recur.

Treatments relying on T cells, a key component of the body’s immune
system, have had significant success, but a new experimental method
customizes naturally produced cells to sharpen their attack on cancer.

Gloria Ayala walked into a hospital room and found a mother pacing while
her daughter lay in bed. When Ayala was greeted with a big hug, she
realized the experience was what being an MD Anderson volunteer was all about.